GHOSTS o/^Ae BIBLE 



{The Lmb Gref Messmg^) 



BY 



Converse E. Nickerson 




Class. 

Book 

CopiglitlS? 



COPmiGlfT DEPOSIT. 



GHOSTS of the BIBLE 



ELYSIAN FIELDS 

Converse E. Nickerson 

O come with me to Elysian fields, 
To Elysian fields of sleep, — 

When the tired mortal body yields 
To the dream-shades that round it 
creep. 

We'll lift so softly the curtain veil, 
We'll touch the hands beyond, 

As out of the earthly moonlight pale 
We enter the light new dawned. 

There are smiles of joy in that happy 
place, 
There are radiant beams of light; 
And we shall see many a longed-for 
face 
Long passed from our mortal sight. 

How free from the tears and the dust 
of earth 
Are they of this spirit land; 
How conscious are they of their God- 
given worth 
And their duties, Heaven-planned! 

They see with a foresight never 
known 

To us, in this vale of tears; 
Their spirits never feel sad or lone, 

And they know no weight of years. 

Oh come with me to Elysian fields. 
Just over the brink of Breath, 

Where the law of Love her power 
wields. 
And ever there is no Death. 



GHOSTS of the BIBLE 



BY 

Converse E. 




'Prove all things and hold fast 
that which is good." — Paul 



This little volume is dedicated 

to all sincere seekers 

after truth. 



Published by 

Converse E. Nickerson 

433 Ferry St., Everett, Mass. 






Copyright, 1922 

By Converse E. Nickerson 

433 Ferry St., Everett, Mass. 

All rights reserved 



PRINTED BY 
A. W. LANDER, NEWPORT, 


ME 


SEP^y 




(0,aA683103 




■^* \ 





Contents 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I Ghosthood or Immortality - 15 

II Spirit Communication - - 29 

III Jehovah, The Spedtre Chieftain 45 

IV Ghost Councilors - * - 62 

V The Return of Samuel - - 76 

VI Ghosts of Daniel - - - 96 

VII The Man of Nazareth - - 105 

VIII Ghosts of Adts - ' '133 



FOREWORD 

I have endeavored to set forth in the 
following pages a clear statement of the 
important findings concerning Bible im- 
mortality. To the careful student of 
truth, many things in this little volume 
will be joyfully received. The superfFicial 
reader, who neglects to give his serious 
thought to these things, will derive little 
else but casual interest and amusement 
from my efforts. 

Students of the Bible will find many 
startling and new, though nevertheless 
natural, interpretations of time worn 
passages herein. I hope, however, that, 



Foreword 13 



in the light of modern science and psychic 
revelation, my findings will be considered 
without even a glimmering prejudice. 

We are all treading the mortal path that 
leads to Our Father's spiritual kingdom; 
therefore let us walk with eyes of search- 
ing observation that no opportunity of 
learning truths escape us in our pilgrimage 
of soul enlightenment. 

God's universal truths are open and 
•plain to the mind that is unprejudiced by 
usages and beliefs of the past. Creeds are 
but the stepping stones to greater spiritual 
knowledge and in their nature must give 
place to newer S3/stems of thought as age 
succeeds age and man treads onward un- 
der the light of freedom and sincerity. 



1 4 Foreword 



That this little book may lift sorrowing 
hearts that are awed by the contemplation 
of Death, is the heart prayer of one who 
serves in the ranks of Truth. 
1 am, 

Sincerely your friend. 
Converse E. Nickerson 



Pittsfield. Maine. June, 1922 



GHOSTS of the BIBLE 

CHAPTER 1 

Qliosthood or Immortality 

*'And as for my soul, what can it do 

to that. 
Being a thing immortal as itself V^ 

Shakespeare's ''HamW 

Do you believe in ghosts ? 

Our grandmothers, not so long ago, 
used to tell us hair-raising tales about 
weird and unnatural beings that were sup- 
posed to haunt the cemeteries and old 
deserted castles of the countryside. The 



16 Ghosthood or Iminortality 

seriousness with which these tales were 
related at every hearth-stone, showed with 
what earnestness they were believed. 
That visions and strange sounds were 
prevalently witnessed, is beyond a think- 
er's doubt. 

Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, records 
Dr. Johnson to have written the follow- 
ing: 

" That the dead are seen no more 1 
will not undertake to maintain, against 
the concurrent and unvaried testimony 
of all ages, and of all nations. There is 
no people, rude or learned, among 
whom apparitions of the dead are not 
related and believed. This opinion, 
which prevails as far as human nature 
is diffused, could become universal only 
by its truth; those that never heard of 
one- another, would not have agreed in 



Ghosthood or Immortality 17 

a tale which nothing but experience can 
make credible. That it is doubted by 
single cavillers, can very little weaken 
the general evidence; and some who 
deny it with their tongues, confess it 
by their fears/ '' 

Notice that the learned Doctor em- 
phasizes the fact that these tales are be- 
lieved 'as far as human nature is diffused' 
and that they 'could become universal only 
by their truth!' 

Boswell also states that a certain one, 
Colonel Oglethrope, recounted an instance 
of this sort, regarding the premonition of 
the death of an army officer. A man 
named Prendergast (the officer in ques- 
tion) was psychically warned that he 
would die on a certain day. This prophecy 
was filled to the letter. The ghostly in- 
formant is claimed to have been the spirit 



18 Ghosthood or Immortality 

of a Sir John Friend. The truth of this 
happening was vouched for by the Colonel 
in the presence of Alexander Pope, the 
noted poet, who came to enquire after its 
authenticity. 

Oliver Goldsmith tells us in all sin- 
cerity that his brother, the Rev. Goldsmith, 
once saw a ghost. My mother has often 
told me of several unusual appearances 
of persons passed through death. That 
these appearances were strictly as she re- 
counted them I have absolutely no doubt! 
When the disciples of Jesus beheld him 
walking on the water they concluded that 
they had seen a spirit and were afraid. 
49 But when they saw him walk- 
ing upon the sea, they supposed it had 
been a spirit, and cried out. Mark: 7. 
So we see from this that it was con- 



Ghosthood or Immortality 19 

sidered a possible and probable experience 
to see an apparition. 

What is a ghost? 

In the 27th of Matthew we read: 
5o Jesus, when he had cried again 

with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 

In Genesis, 25th chapter, we also read: 
8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, 

and died in a good old age. 

Again in the same chapter: 

17 Ishmael gave up the ghost and 

died, and was gathered to his people. 

The word ''ghost" is of Persian origin 
and signifies guest. The Greek word for 
ghost is "pneuma", meaning spirit. To 
give up a thing presupposes the posses- 
sion of it: for a body to give up a spirit 
implies that the body had a spirit in it. In 
the book of Job Elihu tells us: 

8 There is a spirit in man and the 



20 Ghosthood or Immortality 

inspiration of the Almighty giveth him 

understanding. Job 32. 

In the 10th chapter of this book, Job 
proclaims: 

1 1 Thou hast clothed me with skin 

and flesh and hast fenced me with bones 

and sinues. 

This points directly to a personal entity 
living in the human body. Socrates, when 
asked by Citro in what manner he wished 
to be buried after death, replied: 

''As you please, if I do not slip from 

you.'^ 

Turning to his friends again he further 
said: 

''He confounds me with my corpse. 

He thinks Socrates is the body which 

will presently lay motionless in death." 

Jesus pointedly told Nicodemus, John 



Ghosthood or Immortality 21 

3, that one must leave the body before 
obtaining life in the spirit: 

5 Except a man be born of water 
(flesh) and Spirit (God) he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God (spirit.) 

6 That which is born of flesh is 
flesh and that which is born of Spirit is 
spirit. 

Apes look like men and are men in 
ph3^sical construction but only flesh, as 
compared with the spirit of God-like intel- 
ligence, or soul power. 

Paul, in discussing the same subject, 
announces in 1st Corinthians, l5th chap- 
ter: 

37 That which thou so west (the 
physical dead body) thou so west not 
that body that shall be, it may chance 
of wheat, or of some other grain. 
Cemeteries yield nothing but dust, 



22 Ghosthood or Immortality 

which in its turn by nature may give forth 
of grain, flowers, or whatsoever dust may 
yield. Still discoursing on this interesting 
subject, Paul goes on to say: 

44 It is sown a natural body; it is 
raised a spiritual body. There is a 
natural body and there is a spiritual 
body. 

50 Now this I say, brethren, that 
flesh and blood cannot inherit the king- 
dom of God. 

Also in the 5th chapter of 2nd Corin- 
thians Paul affirms: 

1 For we know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, 
we have a building of God (spirit) 
not made v/ith hands, eternal in the 
heavens. 

2 For in this (earth body) we 



Ghosthood or Immortality 23 

groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed 
upon from heaven. 

4 that mortality might be 

swallowed up with life. 

5 Now He that hath wrought us for 
the selfsame thing is God, who also hath 
given us the earnest of the Spirit. 

6 Therefore we are always con- 
fident, knowing that, whilst we are at 
home in the body, we are absent from 
the Lord. (Jesus was then in spirit 
life.) 

7 We are confident, I say, and 
willing rather to be absent from the 
body, and to be present with the Lord. 
Thus Paul tells us plainly that our 

physical bodies hold us chained to earth 
and matter, so keeping us from being 
present with those who have passed 
through death. He reminds us that the 



24 Ghosthood or Immortality 

mortal of us mixes with the rest of earth 
at the change of death, and that therefore 
this mortal is of no further use or con- 
sequence after death when the spirit has 
left it. 

In Acts, the 7th chapter, it is evident 
that Stephen sees the spirit of Jesus. His 
persecutors, as they stoned him to death, 
mocked him as they tauntingly cried : 
59 Lord Jesus received my spirit. 

What does Science say of the independ- 
ent life of the spirit of man ? 

Firstly, that matter is indestructible. 
That the tiniest atom contains life peculiar 
to its nature. That its nature gives birth 
to the constant change of form which we 
mistake for death. 

That death to the physical is simply a 
disorganization of the system of physical 
man. 



Ghosthood or Immortality 25 

Secondly, Physical Science establishes 
the startling fact that the entire physical 
organism renews itself every seven years ! 
That means that the brain of the physical 
body, commonly called the mind, is 
changed newly every once in that period 
of time, or oftener. The mind is usually 
believed to be native with the brain, its 
organ of function and epcpression; but 
this finding of Physical Science demon- 
strates to the contrary and proves that the 
mind is unchangeable through all the 
stress and storm of physical change ! 

We retain the same qualities and 
peculiarities of individual mind through 
all the several ages of physical man; baby- 
hood, childhood, boyhood, manhood, — on 
to old age, — all persist in displaying the 
personal entity within until physical dis- 
solution rings down the curtain of death. 



26 Ghosthood or Immortality 

Twin children may posses in appear- 
ance the same physical elements of mortal 
estate; texture and complection, height 
and health, may be identical to the sense 
of sight. Yet the flash of the eye, the man- 
ner of the speech, and many other such 
positive emanations of personality, pro- 
claim that the spirit in the one body vastly 
differs from that in the other. 

Death leaves both physical structures 
the same in quality, — ^the spirit person- 
ality — has escaped the tenament of clay! 
It was the spirit of that entity that thought 
through the brain; looked forth through 
those eyes; dwelt in that temple of clay! 

In seventy-seven years of earth life we 
use and cast off ten or more physical 
coverings, is it reasonable to suppose 
then, that the final covering which death 
disorganizes should in any greater manner 



Ghosthood or Immortality 27 

harm the spirit than did the removal of the 
previous ones? 

Shakespeare expresses this truth when 
he says: 

'This vesture of decay which doth 

close us in/' 

Again in Hamlet: 

''When we have shuffled off this 

mortal coil." 

Mortal existence is never considered to 
depend on any other basis than that of 
science. Why, then, should we consider 
a future life of immortality to rest on any 
basis which leaves science out? 

The state of spiritual happiness, here 
and hereafter, is conditional and depends 
upon the omission or observance of spirit- 
ual laws. Goodness or evil are relative 
states of spirit consciousness. The terms. 



28 Ghosthood or Immortality 

''angel" and ' 'devil' ' express the states of 
spirits subject to these conditions. 

God, in His infinite wisdom and love, 
placed us here in flesh and surrounded us 
with kindred and convenience. As life in 
the physical can only separate us from one 
another by changing states of conscious- 
ness, so also will life after death just as 
surely hold us close in the ties of com- 
munion, separating only according to the 
laws of spirit states of consciousness. 
The poet, Whittier, sings: 
Alas for him 

Who, hopeless, la^^s his dead away. 
Who hath not learned in hours of 

faith. 
This truth to flesh and sense un- 
known. 
That Life is ever lord of Death 
And Love can never lose its own! 
(Snowbound). 



CHAPTER II ; 

Spirit Communication 

The law of vibration is the law of the 
universe; all created things have their in- 
dividual rates of vibration: earth, air, and 
sea contain their peculiar systems of 
vibration. Color is vibration, sound is 
vibration, feeling is vibration. 

All the five senses of man depend on 
the law of vibration for their expression 
and recognition. All things sensed by the 
five senses depend on the sense of feeling, 
— or touch: it is the waves of light (vi- 
bration) which, striking, upon the optic 



30 Spirit Communication 

nerves of the eye, are translated by that 
organ into sight. Sound is in like manner 
registered through the drums of the ears 
upon the conscious spirit. Taste and smell 
also come within the operation of this 
general sense of touch. 

Man communicates to man by these five 
senses, and by others not usually classified. 

'Language' is the term we use for sound 
but it is also applicable as denominating 
all other manifestations whereby com- 
munication is effected; therefore we use 
and understand many languages. The 
language of sight and touch are as potent 
and real to the conscious spirit as the 
language of sound! 

Every day we experience instances of 
this: 

The motion of the head, the eye, the 
hand, or the body, often convey, as cer- 



Spirit Communication 31 

tainly as the uttered word, definite com- 
munication. 

Nearly every child knows the language' 
of flowers, of music, or of temperment,— 
unspoken languages, and yet in common 
use as much as French or English. Most 
of us understand kitty's 'language' as she 
talks to her baby kittens: when she purs 
we know that she is contented and happy: 
when she cries in louder tones we under- 
stand that she asks for something to be 
done; when she cries out in pain we under- 
stand; so it is with our recognition of all 
domestic animals and their 'language'. 

On the wings of language comes 
thought. Back of thought is the conscious 
spirit, or personality. Back of the con- 
scious spirit is God. 

As I have pointed out, we communicat- 



32 Spirit Communication 

and receive communications by and 
through the law of vibration. 

Wireless is an instance of this in the 
grosser material planes; electricity furnish- 
ing the motive power. Wireless is the 
natural method of all spirit communica- 
tion, whether in the body or out of the 
body. 

To-day man thinks it not at all sur- 
prising to know that the human voice may 
be perfectly transmitted across three thou- 
sand miles of space by the wireless system. 
It is even being proved practicable to send 
a photograph likeness by wireless! 

The natural ear and throat of man ac- 
complish wireless communication like the 
first instance, and the eye of man is thor- 
oughly illustrative of wireles photography. 
Electric vibratory power is used by the 
system of material wireless, while spirit 



spirit Communication 33 

vibratory power conducts and completes 
the system of natural wireless in the field 
of the physical senses. 

1 affirm that spirit communication in the 
body is but the material example and 
manifestation of the same out of the body. 
Therefore, life and communication after 
death is as natural and convenient as life 
and communication here on the physical 
plane. 

That being true, then there is no incon- 
sistency about the act of communication 
between spirit and mortal. The only 
requisite being an instrumentality sen- 
sitive enough to catch spirit vibrations 
coming from a finer material plane than 
that of the physical. 

The common law of vibration demon- 
strates its purpose of existence by record- 
ing itself. To be more explicit: the regis- 



34 Spirit Communication 



tration of sight by the eye gives reason for 
the vibrations of light and color. Thus 
we know that they exist for a purpose. 
Spirit personality is manifesting constant- 
ly through all the avenues of physical 
expression; therefore we know that spirit 
personality is a fact. 

It is consistent to expect the continued 
existence of spirit personality after the dis- 
solution of the physical; it is also consist- 
ent to expect the spirit to have been 
provided by the Creator with facilities for 
communication with spirits still holding 
their habitation in flesh. 

Clairvoyance is the name given to the 
faculty of the visual perception of objects 
not perceived by the physical eye. That 
such a visual faculty is fact and not fancy 
is evidenced in the following account of 
tests mnde by certain physicians in South 



Spirit Communication 35 

America: (These facts were published in 
an editorial column of The Etude, 
Presser's music magazine of Philadelphia, 
February 1921 issue. 

'Chromacousia is the phenomenon of 
hearing colors, or rather seeing colors 
when certain music is heard. Years back 
enthusiasts implied that certain phases of 
music suggested certain colors, and called 
to mind the fact that the vibration rates 
of colors bear a peculiar relation to the 
vibration rates of the musical scale under 
certain conditions. Now the Medical 
Summary, a recognized authority, in a 
recent issue reports the cases of blind 
men who, upon hearing certain kinds of 
music, always see colors. The El Siglo 
Medico reports the facts as follow: 

" The patient at first attached no im- 
portance to the phenomenon. Fifteen 



36 Spirit Communication 

years before he had become totally blind 
from disease of the optic nerves and from 
the very onset of his blindness he noted 
that certain sounds produced visual ef- 
fects. For example, the first bars of 
Gounod's Ave Maria called forth a color 
hard to define, — a sort of mixture of violet 
and rose. On certain occasions he beheld 
an emerald green on hearing the violin. 

" 'Commenting on this case, Ribon 
states that chromacousia is seen in Colom- 
bia under exceptional circumstances. He 
himself knows of a subject who sees blue 
under the influence of certain musical airs 
of v/hich he does not know the names. 
The color seen by the blind correspondent 
on hearing Gounod's air is doubtless light 
violet, for that is the shade, along with 
blue, which Gounod's music usually pro- 



Spirit Corranunication 37 

duces in the subject predisposed to 
chromacousia. 

" The author has written on the 
psycho-optic and psycho-auditive centers, 
and in this study had already published the 
fact that the music of this composer 
aroused a sense of either violet or tur- 
quoise blue. There is no doubt that a 
concerted eifort by ophthalmologists, 
otologists, psychiatrists, etc., would bring 
to light many facts in connection with 
chromacousia, a phenomenon not usually 
associated with blindness and perhaps in 
the latter case having a somewhat different 
mo+ivation.' " — El Siglo Medico.' 

This is distinctly a case of objective 
clairvovance. It must be obvious to the 
reader that if one who has no use what- 
ever of his optic nerves is able to dis- 
tins:uish the diiference between colors, he 



38 Spirit Communication 

must be in possession ofs ome faculty of 
sight not of the common five senses. The 
above tests proclaim such a faculty to be 
a fact. The writer is of the decided opinion 
that this faculty considered and the 
psychic faculty of a clairvoyance are one 
and the same. 

In this instance we find color and sound 
affecting each other. The vibrations of 
color are subjective to those of sound; 
dullness of color is consistent with low 
tones in sound. Sometimes we call bright 
colors 'loud colors". Density is also 
directly associated with color; grosser 
materials usually are dark in color. 

Comparing physical bodies, we find 
that the artistic or cultivated soul 
possesses, usually, a phyical body of finer 
texture than one less cultivated. 

We say one is refined when he evinces 



Spirit Communication 39 

signs of soul enlightenment. The grosser 
races of physical humanity are deeper 
toned in color than those races who seem 
by nature to be refined. 

Clairaudience is the name given to the 
spirit faculty of sound perception. To 
hear a sound presupposes its existence. 
Psychics who possess the faculty of clair- 
audience have demonstrated its truth be- 
yond a reasonable doubt. Upon the 
wings of this faculty have come the voices 
of souls long since passed from the 
confines of earth. 

Clairsientience is the name applied to 
the faculty of sensing the presence of 
personality minus a physical body. 

For the psychic faculty of smell we 
have as yet no name. Many a spirit com- 
munication has been identically proved 
upon the added testimony of this faculty. 



40 Spirit Communication 

For instance, a psychic records that a cer- 
tain spirit brings the perfume of roses or 
the odor of gasoHne; the facts of the 
circumstance of identity being that the 
spirit, when in the physical, was ardently 
fond of such flowers and had passed from 
the earth body because of fire caused by 
the explosion of gasoline; this would at 
once make certaiu the identity of the spiri 
communicating, providing, of course, that 
all the rest of the communication was con- 
sistent with such a personality in the 
knowledge of the person receiving the 
communication. 

Often, in the folds of dreamland, has 
come the manifestation of these psychic 
faculties; the dreamer, upon awaking, re- 
membered positively the dream experience 
of smelling and tasting very vividly con- 
cerning the things drempt of. 



Spirit Communication 41 

If psychic faculties are in the possession 
of the spirit man in the physical, may 
we not have full reason to believe that the 
spirit man, out of a physical body, still 
possesses them? The common faculties 
of the physical man are, as we enter into 
acquaintance with them, as strange to the 
casual matter-of-fact mind as any spirit 
faculties yet revealed. 

The spirit in the physical body has no 
means of communication except by and 
through the laws of vibration; this we 
find to be natural and systematic with the 
Accepted laws of being. The spirit with- 
out a physical body is also without means 
of communication except by and through 
the laws of vibration. 

When the psychic faculties of a medium 
record a face, or a voice, or a touch, the 
very peculiar facts of the personality 



42 Spirit Communication 

causing those psychic vibrations will posi- 
tively identify that personality. The theory 
of "imagination/' which so often is 
advanced in the eflfort to evade the true 
facts of psychic communication, is un- 
sound and of unreliable use. The imagin- 
ation is incapable of giving pictures of 
things totally unknown to it. If one has 
never seen a dog, one cannot possibly de- 
scribe such a creature; to accurately 
describe the manners, voice, apparel, cir- 
cumstances, etc., of a spirit personality 
never before known to the psychic, 
necessitates something of more positive 
power and reliability than imagination! 

1 do not wish to unnecessarily belittle 
the importance of the lower forms of 
physical psychic phenomena, such as 
table-tipping, trumpet-voice, and dark 
cabinet forms of this phase of spirit 



spirit Communication 43 

manifestation, yet the higher avenues 
of spirit communication are altogether to 
be desired. So much of the base counter- 
feit has been perpetrated in the name 
of the genuine, that too much pru- 
dence and care cannot be exercised in 
guarding against these dangerous avenues 
of communication. 

The wise Creator has provided every 
natural avenue and facility for com- 
munication, physically and psychically. 
A conscious semi-trance mediumship is to 
be preferred rather than one requiring the 
giving over of the medium's conscious 
personality. 

Concentration and a sincere faith in 
one's ability will develop natural psychic 
oifts. Any other method of development 
:*s, in the writer's estimation, forced and 
unnatural Psychic power should be en- 



44 Spirit Communication 

couraged to grow through removing the 
obsticales in its path, not by pushing its 
growth up through all the mental and 
material rubbish of the physical garden. 



CHAPTER III 

]ehovahy The Spedre Chieftain 

''Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, 
and it gives to us a beauty that fades not 
away in time, nor does it take away the 
freedom of speech which proceeds from jus- 
tice; but it gives to us the knowledge of what 
is just and lawful, separating from them 
the unjust and refuting them.''"' 

—EPICTETUS. 

There is running through the Old 
Testament, the history of a grave and 
haughty character. Sometimes he is 
called by the name of ''Lord God 
Jehovah'' and at other times, erroneously, 



46 Jehovah, The Spedire Chieftain 

by the name of ''Lord God Almighty/' 
This chapter is for the express purpose of 
finding out all we can about him. If he is 
the ''Eternal God", "the Father of all 
mercies," "the giver of every good and 
perfect gift," and "the maker of heaven 
and earth and all things therein," and not 
the spectral leader of only the Jewish 
people, it is our duty to know all about it. 

Truth has a two-edged sword and cuts 
equally on both sides; Superstition and 
Ignorance cannot withstand the unrelent- 
ing stroke of her keen blade. Those who 
worship at the shrine of Custom, loudly 
acclaiming Awe and padded Grandeur 
have nothing substantial to which to fly 
for protection when Truth wields her 
golden sword! 

This is an age of revelation when hidden 
things are brought forth from the musty 



Jehovah, 1 he Spectre Chieftain 47 

chambers of timidity and aired in the light 
of certainty and reason. Thrones of auto- 
crats tumble as the hearts and minds of 
the people apply the tests of justice and 
truth to the former things of clay. 

Religions and beliefs are passing under 
the rod of the searching hand of Truth. 
Liberality has set her seal of disapproval 
upon the hard usages of ecclesiastical 
dogma, as thousands come out into the 
sunshine of enlightenment to worship the 
true and the living God. The robes of 
Creed and Formality are being laid aside 
for garments of fresher and more lasting 
quality, while souls, reading afresh the 
Word of God, as the hand of His wisdom 
has lettered it in all the earth and skies, sea 
and air, send forth their praise and ador- 
ation in the incense of prayer to the King 
of kings and Lord of lords, whose 



48 Jehovah, The Spedire Chieftain 

dominion is from Everlasting to Everlast- 
ing! 

Paul declares to the Athenians that God 
is the spirit creator of all things: (Acts 17) 

24 God that made the world, and 
all things therein, seeing that He is Lord 
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in 
temples made with hands; 

25 Neither is worshipped with 
men's hands, as though He needed any 
thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and 
breath, and all things; 

26 And hath made of one blood all 
nations of men, for to dwell on all the 
face of the earth. 

From this we get a wide and compre- 
hensive view of God. PauFs description 
of the God of the universe places every 
nation on an equal footing with the Jews 
in the sight of Our Heavenly Father. 



Jehovah, The Spedtre Chieftain 49 

All nations and peoples have had their 
bibles: the histories of God's manifestation 
to man. The Indians based their knowl- 
edge and history on the legends of their 
ancestors; tradition shaped and moulded 
the wonderful story of their people. 
Characters of crude design became the 
medium through which these legends were 
preserved. Thus all nations have tran- 
scribed their thoughts of God. 

The Jews preserved in their history the 
dealings of spirit communication concern- 
ing their race. God is the true source of 
all life; but the personality of a ruling 
national spirit force by the name of 
Jehovah has mingled so with the manifes- 
tations of Divine power, together with the 
conceit of the Jewish people in claiming 
themselves to be the chosen people of the 



50 Jehovah, The Spectre Chieftain 

most high God, that their history is muc: 

distorted. 

We first become acquainted with the 

name of the spirit leader of the Jews in 

the 6th chapter of the book of Exodus: 
3 And I appeared unto Abraham, 
unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name 
of God Almighty; but by my name 
Jehovah was I not known to them. 

6 Wherefore say unto the children 
of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring 
you out from under the burdens of the 
Egyptians, and I will rid you out of 
their bondage, and I will redeem you 
with a stretched out arm, and with great 
judgments; 

7 And I will take you to me for a 
people, and I will be to you a God: and 
ye shall know that I am the Lord your 



Jehovah, The Spectre Chieftain 51 

God, which bringeth you out from 

under the burdens of the Egyptians. 

This Jehovah had mercy on the Jews 
in their bondage and adopted them as his 
people but of the Egyptians he had no 
concern. Paul says that all nations are of 
one blood; then, consequently, the 
Egyptians were brothers of the Jews in the 
sight of God. This Jehovah recognizes 
no paternal obligations toward the Egyp- 
tians! 

He sought only to care for the Jews 
and to make them a separate people unto 
himself. The 2nd chapter of Romans 
asserts that: 

11 There is no respect of persons 

with God. 

The book of Psalms affirms that God 
is Omnipresent: (Psalm 139) 



52 Jehovah, The Spedxe Chieftain 

7 Whither shall I flee from thy 
presence ? 

8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou 
art there: if I make my bed in hell (the 
grave), behold, thou art there. 

9 If 1 take the wings of the morn- 
ing, and dwell in the uttermost parts of 
the sea, 

10 Even there shall thy hand lead 
me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 
Not so with Jehovah: 

The book of Judges tells us in the 1st 
chapter that: 

19 The Lord (Jehovah) was with 
Judah and he drove out the inhabitants 
of the mountain, but could not drive out 
the inhabitants of the valley, because 
they had chariots of iron. 
Matthew records that: 



Jehovah, The Spedtre Chieftain 53 

26 With God all things are possible. 

(19th chapter.) 

Mosses Hull, the noted scholar and 
student of Hebrew tradition, declares 
Jehovah to be the ''god of the mountain.'' 
The name 'Jehovah' is, in truth, taken 
from the Egyptian language and comes 
expressly from the word Yah-weh. The 
former syllable meaning Chief, God, or 
Judge, and the latter syllable representing 
mountain or hill. Jabez Sunderland, the 
Unitarian scholar, bears out this opinion 
in his book on the history of the Bible. 

From the foregoing, it is evident that 
this spirit leader was of the Egyptians. His 
power was confined to conditions peculiar 
to those under which spirit manifestation 
is produced. Mount Horeb was particular- 
Iv a favorite place for his manifestation; 
Mount Sinai and other conditional places 



54 Jehovah, The Spectre Chieftain 

were his exclusive camping grounds for 
spirit visitation. 

Now John tells us in the 1st chapter of 
his book, that God cannot be seen: 

18 No man hath seen God at any 

time. 

Again in the 5th chapter he records 
Jesus as corroborating the statement: 
37 The Father which hath sent me, 

hath borne witness of me. Ye have 

neither heard his voice at any time, nor 

seen his shape. 

The writer of 1st Timothy asserts in the 
6th chapter: 

16 Whom (God) no man hath 

seen, nor can see: to whom be honor 

and power everlasting. 

This Jehovah was seen and his voice 
was heard, as the following verses from 
Fxodus, the 33rd chapter testify: 



Jehovah, The Spedtre Chieftain 55 

1 1 The Lord spake unto Moses face 
to face, as a man speaketh unto his 
friend. 
In the 24th chapter of Exodus we read: 

9 Then went up Moses and Aaron, 
Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the 
elders of Israel; 

10 And they saw the God of Israel: 
and there was under his feet as it were a 
paved work of a sapphire stone, and as 
it were the body of heaven in his clear- 
ness. 

11 And upon the nobles of the 
children of Israel he laid not his hand: 
also they saw God, (Jehovah) and did 
eat and drink. 

The 1 8th verse of this chapter tells us 
that Moses visited with Jehovah in the 
mountain for forty days and forty nights. 
Perhaps the strangest of all the visitations 



56 Jehovah, The Spectre Chieftain 

of Jehovah to the leaders of Israel was the 
one recorded in the 4th chapter of Exodus, 
when he sought to do away with Moses 
altogether: 

24 And it came to pass, by the way 
in the inn, that the Lord met him, and 
sought to kill him. 

1 would consider it blaspheme to accuse 
God Almighty of falsehood and theft; 
Jehovah is, from the following account, 
guilty of both: (Exodus, 3rd chapter) 

18 Ye shall say unto the king of 
Egypt, The Lord God of the Hebrews 
hath met with us: and now let us go 
three days' journey into the wilderness, 
that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our 
God. 

21 When ye go, ye shall not go 
empty; 

22 But everv woman shall borrow 



Jehovah, The Specftre Chieftain 57 



of her neighbor, and of her that 
sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, 
and jewels of gold, and raiment: and 
ye shall put them upon your sons, and 
upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil 
the Egyptians. 

This is damaging evidence against 
Jehovah. A partial, and a personal, god 
would naturally do everything to protect 
his people, even to the point of unjustb' 
treating all opposing forces; but that the 
g-sat over-ruling power of omnipresence 
should be guilty of such petty crimes is 
past consistent belief. 

The episode in the 22nd chapter of 1st 
Kings places Jehovah in the light of a 
murderer: 

19 I saw the Lord sitting on his 
throne, and all the hosts of heaven 



58 Jehovah, The Spedtre Chieftain 

standing by him, on his right hand and 
on his left. 

20 And the Lord said, Who shall 
persuade Ahab that he may go up and 
fall at Ramoth-gilead ? And one said on 
this manner, and another said on that 
manner. 

21 And there came forth a spirit 
and stood before the Lord, and said, I 
will persuade him. 

22 And the Lord said unto him, 
Wherewith? And he said I will go 
forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the 
mouth of all his prophets. And he said, 
Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail 
also : go forth and do so. 

35 And the battle increased that 
day; and the king was stayed up in his 
chariot against the Syrians, and died at 
even. 



Jehovah, The Spednre Chieftain 59 

The whole story of Jehovah's shameful 
plan to do away with Ahab is set forth in 
this 22nd chapter of 1st Kings. Micaiah, 
the Samarian psychic, let loose the secret 
and told Ahab everything of the disgrace- 
ful plans of Jehovah. It seems that Ahab 
had, through his wife's dishonest con- 
triving, procured a vineyard from his 
neighbor Naboth. Jehovah was displeased 
and sought to work his revenge by putting 
Ahab out of the way. 

Thou shalt not kill; yet Ahab was 

murdered. 

That the supreme God should stoop to 
the cowardly act of unjustly m.urdering 
one of his oflfspring is unthinkable. 

Certainly not under the rulership of 
such a monarch as Jehovah could we feel 
with the poet who wrote: 

He that dwelleth in the secret place 



60 Jehovah, The Spedire Chieftain 

of the Most High, shall abide under the 

shadow of the Almighty. 

1 win say of God, He is my refuge, 

and my fortress: my God; in him will 1 

trust. 

The reader will naturally enquire as to 
what the Jews told of truth concerning the 
Most High God. The book of Psalms is 
the old hymnbook of the Jews. In it are 
gathered together the hynms of worship, 
praise, exultation, and thanksgiving. 
When they won the victory over an enemy 
they sang hymns of exhultation; when 
they were moved in spirit to contemplate 
the everlasting Creator, whom they could 
not see or talk with, they sang hymns of 
praise; their hymns of worship are divided 
between their blind and slavelike adoration 
for Jehovah and their soul consciousness 
of an over-ruling power existent in all 



Jehovah, The Spedire Chieftain 61 

created things. Thus we have a mixture 
of praise, to two gods and a mixture of a 
code of righteousness and justice with a 
code of slaughter and revenge. 
The true spiritual code is: 
The Fatherhood of God, 
The Motherhood of Love, 
The Familyhood of Life, 
The Angelhood of Man. 
'There is none good but one; that is 
God.^^ Matt. 19:17 



CHAPTER IV 

Qhost Councilors 

Of the early history of the Jews, as it is 
recorded in the opening five books of the 
Old Testament, professors of language 
and history pronounce it to have been 
adapted from the traditions of many 
generations; to have come partly through 
Babylonian channels and partly through 
traditions handed down by captive Jews. 
Of these books the Rev. Jabez Sunderland 
says: 

'The traditions of the Hebrew people 



Ghost Councilors 63 

from the very earliest times — times far 
earlier than Moses — are gathered here: 
idyllic tales of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob; accounts of the creation and of 
the first fortunes of the human race, 
possibly learned from the Babylonians 
during Exile; stories, one quarter his- 
toric and three quarters legendary," 
In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis we 
find a remarkable instance of ghost visita- 
tion; while Abraham was sitting in the 
door of his tent: 

2 He lift up his eyes and looked, 
and lo, three men stood by him: and 
when he saw them, he ran to meet them 
from the tent door, and bowed himself 
toward the ground. 

The three men were invited by Abra- 
ham to dine with him and his wife Sarah. 
They did so, and, during the meal, told 



64 Ghost Councilors 

Abraham that Sarah should bare him a 
son. The margin of the text pronounces 
these visitors to be ''angels," therefore 
they are not understood to be fleshly be- 
ings. The text reads a bit tangled, for we 
do not find the three men addressed as 
three beings but as *'My Lord." When they 
speak to Abraham they seem to become 
Jehovah speaking and the form of address 
is given as from a single person. 

All heavenly messages that were de- 
livered to the early Jews are considered 
by them as coming from their God, 
Jehovah; this explains the tangled con- 
dition of the text. 

In the nineteenth chapter of Genesis we 
meet two more spirit personages: 

1 And there came two angels to 

Sodom at even. 

They have a warning for Lot to the 



Ghost Councilors 65 

effect that the cities Sodom and Gomorrah, 
are to be destroyed. We have an account 
here of their coming but not any of their 
leaving Lot, unless the verse which reads: 
23 The sun was risen upon the 

earth when Lot entered into Zoar 
means that daylight made them invisible 
to mortal eyes. They came at eventide and 
they are mentioned no more after the sun 
has risen. 

Abraham's wife, Sarah, was not the 
the best of women, for she hated and made 
fun of Hagar, the unnatural wife of 
Abraham, and of Hagar's child, Ishmael. 
Sarah was jealous of the child and forced 
Abraham to make it and its mother out- 
casts. When Hagar and Ishmael have 
been driven out to die on the desert, an 
angel comes to them and shows them the 
way to comfort and safety. 



66 Ghost Councilors 

17 And the angel of God (Je- 
hovah) called to Hagar out of heaven 
(spirit world). (Twenty-first chapter 
of Gen.) 

Abraham was so reliant upon Jehovah's 
wisdom, and so unmerciful in his own 
ignorance and superstition, that he took 
Isaac, his son, and was about to murder 
him: 

(Genesis, the twenty-second chapter), 

10 And Abraham stretched forth 
his hand and took the knife to slay his 
son. 

1 1 And the angel of the Lord (Je- 
hovah) called out of heaven 

12 And said Lay not thine hand 
upon the lad. 

This strange and wicked action was 
brought about, so the Jewish tradition in- 
forms us. to test Abraham's faith in 



Ghost Councilors 67 

Jehovah. If Jehovah had been the God 
of the Universe he would have known all 
about Abraham's faith without any of this 
shameful procedure. 

The next important ghosts of Genesis 
appear in the twenty-eighth chapter: 

12 And he (Jacob) dreamed, and 

. behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and 

the top of it reached to heaven: and 

behold, the angels of God (Jehovah) 

ascending and descending on it. 

That Jacob might have seen angels in 

a dream I do not doubt; but that the 

ladder reached to heaven I do not believe. 

Sleep is a fertile condition in which to 

witness psychic manifestation. The angels 

in this instance are recorded as ascending 

from the earth up the ladder; then 

descending down again to earth. This is 

illustrative of the spirit of man, first 



68 Ghost Councilors 

ascending from the earth body, then com- 
ing back to appear unto those in earth 
bodies. 

In the thirty-second chapter of Genesis 
we meet with another ghost: 

24 And Jacob was left alone; and 
there wrestled a man with him until the 
breaking of the day. 

26 And he (the angel) said, Let me 
go, for the day breaketh. 
As in the case of the spirit messengers 
to Lot, we have no account of when this 
spirit messenger left Jacob. We do find, 
however, that this ghost dislikes to be 
wrestled with after daylight has come. 
In the third chapter of Exodus we read: 
2 And the angel of the Lord ap- 
peared unto him in a flame of fire, out 
of the midst of a bush, and, behold the 



Ghost Councilors 69 



bush burned with fire, and the bush was 

not consumed. 

This is the account of Moses' first meet- 
ing with Jehovah. In all logic the fire was 
not of the ordinary kind else had the bush 
been burned. I am fully consistent with 
the laws of nature when I place the inter- 
pretation of this incident on the side of 
Moses' clairvoyance, and say that because 
of his power he was able to see a spirit 
manifetation. To say that the bush really 
burned and that it was a material sight 
entails a contrary and inconsistent theory 
of explanation. 

I will forbear to recite of the unjust 
plagues Jehovah inflicted upon the in- 
nocents of the Egyptians. That black 
page of Jewish history, if indeed it be 
history, I will leave for him who delighteth 
in the marvelous might of an angry god. 



70 Ghost Councilors 

We will pass over the huge battle 
ground until we come to the book of 
Joshua. Joshua is called by Moses Hull 
''one of the most blood-thirsty books ever 
translated into the English language/' I 
believe him. I pause within its pages only 
long enough to mention a ghost which 
appeared to Joshua, recounted in the fifth 
chapter of that book: 

13 And it came to pass when 
Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted 
up his eyes and looked, and, behold 
there stood a man over against him with 
his sword drawn in his hand: and 
Joshua went unto him and said unto 
him, Art thou for us or for our adver- 
saries? 

14 And he said. Nay, but as captain 
of the host of the Lord am I now come. 
I would think, as would any reasoner, 



Ghost Councilors 71 

that if the captain of the host of Jehovah 
was a spirit, then the host itself were 
spirits. Indeed they were and they 
promised to do big psychic things to help 
Joshua and his people. 

In the sixth chapter of Judges we find 
another record of a ghost adviser: 

1 1 And there came an angel of the 

Lord, and sat under an oak which was 

in Ophrah. 

We learn in this chapter that Gideon 
was threshing wheat by a winepress when 
this spirit appeared unto him. He is told 
that he shall be the leader of his people to 
free them from the hand of the Midianites. 
The angel, or spirit, produces some re- 
markable phenomena to prove that he is 
a powerful spirit: 

21 Then the angel of the Lord put 

forth the end of the staff that was in his 



72 Ghost Councilors 

hand, and touched the flesh and the un- 
leavened cakes; and there rose up fire 
out of the rock and consumed the flesh 
and the unleavened cakes. Then the 
angel of the Lord departed out of his 
sight. 

22 And when Gideon perceived 
that he was an angel of the Lord, 
Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God ! for be- 
cause I have seen an angel of the Lord 
face to face. 

Notice that in this case the phenomena 
is of a more material nature than was the 
view Moses had of the angel in the bush. 
In this case the fire burned the articles of 
material food which Gideon placed on the 
rock. Gideon was naturally frightened at 
seeing a ghost. Our grand-parents always 
believed that the seeing of a spirit meant 



Ghost Councilors 73 

the warning of death. Sometimes that Is 
true, but not In every case. 

Later Gideon tests the angel's power 
and Intelligence with a fleece of wool by 
laying it on the ground with the request 
that it be wet with dew and the ground 
around it be dry, as a sign that he could 
rely on the leadership of the spirit. This 
was granted and even reversed in manner 
and granted again, so that Gideon was 
assured that he would have reliable help. 

I might add to these strange incidents, 
as a reminder that ghost leaders have ap- 
peared whenever a great crisis confronted 
a nation, the story of Joan of Arc. You 
remember that French history has lettered 
the name of this young woman in more 
ineffaceable characters than even those 
leaders of Jewish history, for she is more 



74 Ghost Councilors 

recent, and therefore her history is more 
authentic. 

Napoleon said of her ''She is the only 
general who never lost a battle. Her 
testimony of her power was that a voice 
spoke to her and entreated her to "save 
her people, France." She accordingly 
went to the king and threw herself at his 
feet, begging him to place armour upon 
her and set her at the head of his armies. 
The king, though at first thinking her 
crazy, determined to test out her proph- 
ecies and see if truth were on her side. 
She, untrained in military leadership, led 
France to victory after victory until all 
Europe gasped in astonishment! 

Finally, because of her psychic success, 
the superstitious people condemned her 
for a witch and burned her to the stake. 

Ghost councilors have ever kept the 



GKost Councilors 75 

destinies of men and nations in their grasp, 
sometimes to lead aright, and sometimes 
to blast into material oblivion. 

Paul tells us that we each have a 
guardian angel; Socrates told the court at 
Athens that he had such an advising spirit; 
Jesus testified that he could command 
legions of angels for his protection. 



i\ 



CHAPTER V 

The Return of Samuel 

The book of 1st Samuel is perhaps the 
most interesting volume of Hebrew his- 
tory. As an account of psychic manifes- 
tation, I believe it is the most interesting 
and also the most valuable of the Old 
Testament books. The chief character of 
this book is Samuel, the most outstanding 
psychic of Hebrew lore! 

Samuel was bound over to the priest- 
hood of the Temple (Jehovah's seance 
room) before he was born. Hannah, his 
mother, was an ardent worshipper of 



The Return of Samuel 77 

Jehovah; she did not wish a son for the 
glory and honor of his sonship and man- 
hood, for she begged only to have her 
Jewish and selfish pride of becoming a 
mother satisfied: (Chapter one) 

1 1 And she vowed a vow, and said, 

O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look 

upon the affliction of thine handmaid, 

but will give unto thine handmaid a 

man child, then I will give him unto the 

Lord all the days of his life. 

If it be true that the thoughts and desires 

of a mother can influence the character of 

an unborn child, then indeed was Samuel 

marked for the shameful and tyrannical 

career that made him the most dreadful 

leader of his day! 

When Samuel was born he was alm^ost 
imm.ediately given over to Eli, the Priest 
of the Temple. 



78 The Return of Samuel 

Jehovah, then and there, singled out 
Samuel for his own and, through a psychic 
of the community, sent a message to Eli 
telling him so: 

35 And I will raise me up a faithful 

priest, that shall do according to that 

which is in mine heart, and in my mind. 

One night, as Samuel was reclining on 
his couch, he heard a spirit voice calling to 
him. Mistaking his psychic hearing for 
his physical hearing, he ran to Eli to know 
if it were Eli that had called him. Eli 
answered no. Three times this voice called 
until finally, under instruction from Eli, 
Samuel answered it. The voice was that 
of Jehovah who wanted to transmit, 
through the young medium, a message to 
Eli. 

From this Samuel's fame as a psychic 
went far until all Israel, ''from Dan to 



The Return of Samuel 79 

Beersheba", knew that Samuel was 
established to be a prophet of Jehovah. 

Samuel judged the people of Israel 
nearly all his life. As long as they 
triumphed over their enemies they were 
satisfied. Finally, when Samuel placed 
his two sons over the people, and those 
two sons went to their own heads and 
worshipped not Jehovah but ran the 
government to suit themselves, the super- 
stitious people demanded of Samuel a king 
like the other nations around them. 

About this time a man of Benjamin 
named Saul went out to hunt after his 
father's strayed livestock. Failing to find 
them, he counseled with his servant that 
they return home to his father's house. - 

The servant suggested that they go to 
the city that was nearby and consult a 
medium: (Chapter nine) 



80 The Return of Samuel 

6 And he said unto him, Behold 

now, there is in this city a man of God 

(Jehovah) and all that he sayeth most 

surely cometh to pass: now let us go 

thither; preadventure he can show us 

our way that we should go. 

Saul didn't like the idea of begging, so 

he objected to the servant's plan to consult 

a medium because they had nothing to 

bring this ''man of God" as a present in 

payment for his services to them. The 

servant then said: 

8 Behold I have here at hand the 
fourth part of a shekel of silver; that 
will I give to the man of God to tell us 
our way. 

This is the first instance on record 
where a medium was paid for his psychic 
services. In some places to-day, in the 
world of Christian and Bible civilization, 



The Return of Samuel 81 

psychics are held strictly under the laws 
of the land and taxed grieviously for using 
their ''gifts of the spirit." 

9 (Beforetime in Israel, when a 
man went to enquire of God, thus he 
spake: Come let us go to the seer: for 
he that is now called a prophet was be- 
foretime called a seer.) 
In my dictionary "seer'' means a 
fortune-teller, or one who prophesys. That 
such a thing is a spiritual gift, I need only 
point my reader to Paul's statements, to 
carry my point: (Twelfth chapter of 1st 
Corinthians) 

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, 
brethren, I would not have you igno- 
rant. 

4 Now there are diversities of gifts, 
but the same Spirit. (The universal 
God.) 



82 The Return of Samuel 

7 But the manifestation of the 
Spirit is given to every man to profit 
withal 

10 To another the working of 
miracles; to another prophecy; to an- 
other discerning of spirits. 
When they reached Samuel's house he 
came out in the way to meet them. He 
had hardly spoken two words before he 
informed them of what they came for 
and that the lost property was found. 

If this is not a regular instance of 
mediumship, then there is no heat in the 
sun! 

Samuel then decided to make Saul king 
over the people and thus settle their un- 
rest. 

When Saul became king he placed him- 
self under the dictatorship of Jehovah. But 
Saul was of different stuff than was 



i he Return cf Samuel 83 

Samuel, and he used his own reason and 
personal sway sometimes, to the exclusion 
of Jehovah's cunning. Too, Saul's heart 
was kinder than were the hearts of 
Samuel and Jehovah: when Jehovah 
sought to utterly destroy the Amalekites, 
Saul spared some of their possessions and 
their king. 

The story is well set forth in the 
fifteenth chapter of this book, to the shame 
and disgrace of the Jewish spirit leader, 
Jehovah. 

Jehovah hated the Amalekites because 
the founder of their race, Amalek, had 
abused Israel, (Jacob) many years before. 
(See Exodus 17:8,14) 

For this insult Jehovah ordered Samuel 
to send Saul with many armed warriors 
to visit vengeance upon the remaining 



84 The Return of Samuel 

(helpless and innocent) men, women, and 
children, and even the dumb animals ! 

When Saul spared the king and some of 
the grain and live-stock, Jehovah, the 
obstinate, and Samuel his willing tool, 
pounced upon Saul. Samuel says to Saul 
in this fifteenth chapter: 

22 Hath the Lord (Jehovah) as 

great delight in burnt oflferings and 

sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the 

Lord? 

Which was the greater sin? I would 
say it were far more righteous to abstain 
from slaughter (even to the extent of one 
being) than to obey the will of an angry 
spirit murderer. This statement may seem 
harsh to the reader, but the reading of 
that fifteenth chapter will be much more 
shockin.o-. Jehovah never seems to rest 



The Return of Samuel 85 

unless he is visiting horrible vengeance 
upon those who offend him. 

To utterly carry out Jehovah's wishes, 
33 Samuel hewed Agag to pieces 

before the Lord in Gilgal. 
despite old Agag's trembling pleading to 
be spared: 

32 Surely the bitterness of death 

is past. 

From this can we believe that Jehovah 
is the author of the Ten Commandments 
which contain the command: 
THOU SHALT NOT KILL? 

Would it be consistent to pray unto 
such a personality the following prayer: 
'Torgive us our trespasses as we for- 

,dve those that trespass against us?" 

From the day of this quarrel, we are 
told that Saul saw Samuel no more in the 
flesh. 



86 The Return of Samuel 

Saul and David were at sword's points 
about all their earthly lives. Once when 
Saul was supposed to be ill, David was 
called in to play the harp before him; the 
music of the harp was believed to bring 
soothing and healing on its tones especial- 
ly, as in the case of Saul's indisposition, 
v/hen the nerves were out of order; when 
David began playing, we read in the nine- 
teenth chapter of 1st Samuel, 

9 The evil spirit from the Lord was 
upon Saul, as he sat in his house with 
his javelin in his hand: and David 
played with his hand. 

10 And Saul sought to smite David 
even to the wall with the javelin; but he 
slipped away out of Saul's presence, 
and he smote the javelin into the wall: 
and David fled, and escaped that night. 
The story goes on to declare of the 



The Return of Samuel 87 

relentless pursuit Saul made of David; all 
because Saul was jealous that David 
should regard Jonathan more than Saul. 
( Jonathan was Saul's son. ) It seems very 
strange to my mind, that if Jehovah was 
God, why he allowed his three special 
leaders to bicker and quarrell, even to the 
extent of seeking to slay one another. To 
further push the inconsistency of conclud- 
ing Jehovah to be the Almighty God, from 
everlasting to everlasting, let me modestly 
enquire how it was that the Universal God 
could not allow rebellion in heaven yet 
Jehovah permitted and encouraged all the 
fighting Saul and David and Samuel 
wished to indulge in? To be truthful, 
these last three named gentlemen were 
only aping their spirit master, which must 
have pleased him. "Immitation is the 
sincerest flattery!'' 



88 The Return of Samuel 

The twenty-eighth chapter of this noted 
book records the death and spirit return of 
the psychic Samuel. 

3 Now Samuel was dead, and all 

Israel had lamented him, and buried him 

in Ramah, even his own city. 

There is no doubt, from this, that the 
physical body of Samuel was dead. When 
fellow mortals go so far as to become 
hopeless to the point of lamentation, and 
bury their dead, we may be certain that 
death has transpired. If you are in doubt, 
gentle reader, as to what part of Samuel 
was dead, re-read the first chapter of this 
book. 

Samuel had been the fatherly adviser of 
Saul, as well as the master military mind 
of Saul's le,5:ions. When the Philistines 
made fierce war a.ofainst Saul's armies, 
after Samuel's death, Saul naturally 



The Return of Samuel 89 

longed for a consultation with the departed 
spirit of Samuel: 

6 And when Saul inquired of the 
Lord, (Jehovah) the Lord answered 
him not, neither by dreams, nor by 
Urim, nor by prophets. 

7 Then said Saul unto his servants. 
Seek me out a woman that hath a 
familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and 
inquire of her. And his servants said 
to him, Behold, there is a woman that 
hath a familiar spirit at Endor. 

8 And Saul disguised himself, and 
put on other raiment, and he went, and 
two men with him, and they came to 
the woman by night: and he said, 1 
pray thee, divine unto me by the 
familiar spirit, and bring me him up 
whom I shall name unto thee. 

Saul undoubtediv visited the woman of 



90 The Return of Samuel 

Endor because he believed she was 
possessed of psychic power and could put 
him in touch with the spirit of Samuel. 
The woman, of her own normal physical 
power, could not pierce Saul's disguise; 
but when her familiar spirit (her spirit 
guide) took possession she knew that king 
Saul was before her: 

12 And when the woman saw 
Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: 
and the woman spake to Saul, saying, 
Why hast thou deceived me, for thou 
art Saul. 

Notice in the fourteenth verse that she 
describes Samuel as being ''an old man" 
and ''covered with a mantle.'' This was 
a characteristic description of Samuel, for 
when he last parted with Saul in the flesh, 
he tore his mantle. (See chapter fifteen.) 
Samuel declares to Saul that he is still 



The Return of Samuel 91 

his enemy; that Jehovah has refused Saul 
any help and has ''rent the kingdom out of 
his hand and given it to David," 

All this because Saul did not ''utterly 
destroy" the Amalekites and their stores. 
This looks like hatred and double 
vengeance on the part of Jehovah: 

19 Moreover, the Lord will also 

deliver Israel with thee into the hand of 

the Philistines: and tomorrow shalt 

thou and thy sons be with me. 

Not only would Jehovah quarrel with 

Saul but he would punnish innocent Jews 

for what he held Saul accountable. This 

is justice gone astray and mercy flown 

afar! 

In the thirty-first chapter we read: 

8 And it came to pass on the mor- 
row, when the Philistines came to strip 



92 The Return of Samuel 

the slain, that they found Saul and his 
three sons fallen in mount Gilboa. 
The spirit of Samuel knew what it was 
talking about when it said "Tomorrow 
shalt thou and thy sons be with me/' 

The good woman of Endor has been 
spitefully used in about every Christian 
pulpit in the land. Ministers, who should 
have had better discernment and more 
charity, have labeled her ''a witch" and 
"an agent of the devil!'' These defensive 
facts from this twenty-eighth chapter 
should have been the refuge of the repu- 
tation of the poor woman of Endor, had 
not malignancy and ignorance swayed the 
minds of the clergy: 

2 1 And the woman came unto Saul, 
and saw that he was sore troubled, and 
said unto him, Behold, thine handmaid 
hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put 



The Return of Samuel 93 

my life in my hand, and have hearkened 
unto thy words which thou spakest unto 
me. 

22 Now therefore, I pray thee, 
hearken thou also unto the voice of 
thine handmaid, and let me set a morsel 
of bread before thee; and eat that thou 
mayest have strength when thou goest 
on thy way. 

24 And the woman had a fat calf in 
the house, and she hasted, and killed it, 
and took flour, and kneaded it, and did 
bake unleavened bread thereof: 

25 And she brought it before Saul, 
and before his servants; and they did 
eat. Then they rose up, and went away 
that night. 

'TOVE YOUR ENEMIES!'' 
Saul was her enemy and yet the woman 
did unto him a kind act. That is far more 



94 The Return of Samuel 

than thoughtless preachers have done for 

her since! 

(Matthew, the tenth chapter): 

42 And whosoever shall give to 
drink unto one of these little ones a cup 
of water only in the name of a disciple, 
verily I say unto you, he shall in no 
wise lose his reward. 
Matthew, the fifth chapter: 

44 But I say unto you. Love your 
enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
good to them that hate you, and pray 
for them which despitefully use you, 
and persecute you; 

45 That ye may be the children of 
your Father which is in heaven; for he 
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on 
the good, and sendeth rain on the just 
and the unjust. 

Jesus is therefore my authority for 



The Return of Samuel 95 

pronouncing the woman of Endor to have 
been better than were Jehovah, Samuel 
and Saul! 



; CHAPTER VI 

The Qhosts of Daniel 

Nearly every one is acquainted with the 
history of Daniel, the Hebrew seer. The 
story of DaniePs visit to the den of lions 
is as familiar to the minds of children as 
is the story of Santa Claus. Theology has, 
however, made the blind mistake of be- 
lieving Daniel to have been under the 
control of Jehovah, the spirit leader of the 
Jews. I cannot find any evidence in the 
book of Daniel to support such a theory. 

Daniel paid tribute and respect to the 
God of heaven, for in the second chapter 
of this book we find that: 



The Ghosts of Daniel 97 

19 Then Daniel blessed the God of 

heaven. 

This points decidedly to Daniel's belief 
in a higher spirit power than that of 
Jehovah; the ''God of heaven" is to be 
considered the God of earth also; or as 
Paul states it "The maker of heaven and 
earth and all things therein/' Daniel's 
confessed source of power and wisdom is 
even the same with that of Jesus: "Our 
Father who art in heaven.'' 

When Nebuchadnezzar demanded of 

his wise men to explain his dream, they 

could not; they protested truthfully that: 

11 It is a rare thing that the king 

requireth: and there is none other that 

can show it before the king, except the 

e"ods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. 

Daniel's power as a psychic obtained 
him an exalted political position in the 



98 The Ghosts of Daniel 

king's realm. His three companions, 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, per- 
haps also for their psychic abilities, were 
elevated to places of power and rulership. 
This angered the politicians of Babylon 
and they sought to bring them into dis- 
favor with the king. Knowing that these 
four Hebrews worshipped the God of 
heaven and not the gods of the Baby- 
lonians, the crafty politicians led the king 
to make a decree that at a signal of the 
playing of an orchestra all those within the 
sound of it should bow down and worship 
a golden image. Those who disobeyed 
were to be thrown into a fiery furnace. 

When the time for worship came 
Daniel's three friends were caught praying 
to their God of heaven. Accordingly, the 
informers gave the news to the king. 
Chapter three relates: 



The Ghosts of Daniel 99 

20 And he commanded the most 
mighty men that were in his army to 
bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; 
and to cast them into the fiery furnace. 
Then a strange thing happened: there 
was seen a fourth figure with the three 
captives. The king cried out in astonish- 
ment: 

2.5 Lo I see four men loose, walk- 
ing in the midst of the fire, and they 
have no hurt; the form of the fourth is 
like the Son of God. 
Dear reader, how do you account for 
this fourth person, if you doubt that 
spirits manifest to those of flesh? The 
universal God cannot be seen by man; 
this v/as not God but a personality which 
only the definition of ''conscious entity" 
can appropriately describe! 



100 The Ghosts of Daniel 

The next important ghost of this book 
is recorded in its fifth chapter: 

5 In the same hour came forth 
fingers of a man's hand and wrote over 
against the candlestick upon the plaster 
of the wall of the king's palace; and the 
king saw the part of the hand which 
wrote. 

Here is undoubtedly a case of the 
materialization of a spirit hand; whose 
hand it was history has not explained; 
possibly it belonged to some member of 
the king's family or to some other Baby- 
lonian interested in the earthly affairs of 
Belshazzar's kingdom. Daniel was called 
to make known the interpretation of the 
writing left by the hand; he tells the king 
that the hand has appeared by reason of 
the power of the God of Heaven: 

23 The God in whose hand thv 



The Ghosts of Daniel 101 

breath is, and whose are all thy ways, 

hast thou not glorified; 

24 Then was the part of the hand 

sent from him; (by reason of His 

power) and this writing was written. 

Daniel went on to explain that it was a 
message to proclaim the downfall of the 
Babylonian kingdom: 

30 In that night was Belshazzar the 
king of the Chaldeans slain. 

3 1 And Darius the Median took the 
kingdom. 

Daniel found favor with Darius and 
came near to being chief governor of the 
whole realm; this was prevented by the 
envious politicians who laid immediate 
•plans for Daniel's condemnation in the 
eves of the king. They led the king to 
make a decree that none should petition 
any god for the space of thirty days; 



102 The Ghosts of Daniel 

failure to obey this decree should result 
in the offender being thrown into a den of 
lions. They accordingly caught Daniel 
praying to his spirit power; the king, under 
the persuasion of these political ministers, 
ordered that Daniel be- thrown into the den 
of lions. 

The king was sorry that he must do 
such a thing, for he greatly favored Daniel 
and had found him to be honest and 
likable in all respects. He had much faith 
that Daniel's spirit forces would deliver 
him, and he tells Daniel so as he leaves the 
den. 

The sixth chapter, in telling the story, 
gives the account of the king's sorrow: 
1 8 Then the king went to his palace 
and passed the night fasting: neither 
were instruments of music brought be- 
fore him; and his sleep went from him. 



The Ghosts of Daniel 103 

19 Then the king arose very early 
in the worning and went in haste unto 
to the den of lions. 

Daniel called to the king from the 
midst of the den: 

21 Then said Daniel unto the king, 
O king, live forever. (Did Daniel be- 
lieve in immortality?) 

22 My God hath sent his angel, and 
hath shut the lions' mouths and they have 
not hurt me. 

Daniel here declares that a spirit visited 
him in the den and protected him. We 
know well the power some lion trainers 
have over their ferocious charges. Psychol- 
ogists declare that such power is of a 
psychic nature and that all men do not 
possess it. The spirit of man being the 
knower, it follows that it is the power of 
the spirit within the successful lion trainer 



104 The Ghosts of Daniel 

that can work such a seeming miracle. I 
do not say by this that the angel Daniel 
tells of was formerly a lion trainer, but I 
do say that he was possessed of this power. 
Else why could not Daniel have had as 
much power over the lions as an ordinary 
lion trainer? 

The accounts of these ghosts are plain 
and decided; we have no need of recourse 
to strained text interpretations to learn 
that spirit visitors were with Daniel and 
his friends. 



CHAPTER VII 

The Man of Nazareth 

The simple story of the master teacher 
of spiritual ethics comes to us from the lips 
of tradition. We can get no thoroughly 
authentic details of his birth or life because 
of the fact that nothing concerning him 
was written down until nearly a century 
after his crucifiction. 

Matthew is said to have written a book 
called the Logia, which contained most of 
the great sayings of Jesus; this, un- 
fortunately, is not the book in the Four 
Gospels which ¥/e now have. 



106 The Man of Nazareth 

Mark is evidently the oldest of the 
gospels; at least, most of the Bible authori- 
ties pronounce it so. The writer of Mark 
declares nothing touching upon a miracu- 
lous birth but begins his history with an 
account of the evangelist, John; of his 
preaching baptism and repentance. After 
introducing John, Mark goes on to relate 
of the first meeting between John and 
Jesus, and of the baptizing of Jesus at the 
hands of John. 

We find only two of the Four Gospels 
giving any story of a miraculous birth. 
Jesus ,in all his ministry, never mentioned 
such an event. The strangest account of 
an unnatural birth is the one of the birth 
of John, given in the first chapter of Luke: 

We read that Gabriel came down to 
Zacharias, the father of John, and fore- 
told of John's birth. 



The Man of Nazareth 107 

7 And they had no child, because 

that Ehzabeth was barren, and they 

both were now well stricken in years. 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a young 

woman and not barren, so it was less of a 

miracle that she should give birth to a 

child than that her friend Elizabeth should 

do so. 

As to his name being called Jesus for a 
special and a divine purpose, as is stated in 
the first chapter of Matthew, in Joseph's 
dream, I find no evidence of fact to war- 
rant such a declaration: 

21 And she shall bring forth a son, 

and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for 

he shall save his people from their sins. 

1 cannot reconcile such a statement 

vv^ith the following facts: 

The name 'Uesus" was a common name 
with the Jews; it is the Greek form for 



108 The Man of Nazareth 

''Joshua.'' It is frequent in the Apocryphal 
writings, the most noted of which is Jesus, 
the son of Sirach, native of Jerusalem. 
The companion of Paul at Rome was 
named Jesus: 

Colossians, 2nd chapter: 

11 And Jesus, which is called 

Justus. 

If Jesus of Nazareth was named so be- 
cause he would ''save his people from 
their sins," v/hy did Sirach's son also re- 
ceive the name? Or, why was Paul's 
friend also named "Jesus?" 

To save a man from his sin is to save 
him from the consequences of his sin; 
God's laws are so just that the sinner reaps 
his own harvest from sowing his own seed. 
This is upheld by the writer of Galatians, 
who declares in the sixth chapter of that 
book: 



The Man of Nazareth 109 

7 Be not deceived; God is not 

mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, 

that shall he also reap. 

Then, from this we learn that Jesus 
could not ''save his people from their 
sins!'' 

That such a man lived and taught the 
religious system of spiritual laws ascribed 
to his name, is morally certain: Tacitus, 
Pliny, and Suetonius, — three Roman 
writers, mention Jesus the man of 
Nazareth; Josephus, the Jewish historian, 
also mentions him. He was born in 
Bethlehem, a town of Palestine, six miles 
south of Jerusalem. 

Luke; second chapter records: 

40 And the child grew, and waxed 

strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: 

and the grace of God was upon him. 
46 And it came to pass that after 



no The Man of Nazareth 

three days they found him in the temple, 
sitting in the midst of the doctors, both 
hearing them and asking them ques- 
tions. 

48 And when they (Joseph and 
Mary) saw him they were amazed: and 
his mother said unto him. Son, why 
hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, 
thy father and I have sought thee sor- 
rowing. 

Here Mary calls Joseph the father of 
Jesus. The fifty-second verse reads: 

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom 
and stature, and in favor with God and 
man. 

We have little else of incident concern- 
ing his early years except that his father 
was a carpenter; doubtless Jesus worked 
at the carpenter trade with his father. 
Peter calls him: 



I 



The Man of Nazareth 111 

''Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved 
of God, among you.'' 
With Jabez Sunderland, I heartily join 

in saying: 

'The real work that Jesus did was to 
reveal God, — to reveal him more clear- 
ly than any other great religious teacher 

or prophet had ever done. Jesus as a 
man commands the honor and homage 
of the world. None can look upon him 
without feeling the beauty, the great- 
ness, the essential divineness of his life. 
But clothe him in the garments of deity, 
and how quickly does his greatness 
disappear! But not only do we most 
honor Jesus by accepting him as just 
what he claimed to be, a brother man 
to all of us, but I think that thus also we 
bring him closer to our humanity, and 
make him far more helpful to us all as 



112 The Man of Nazareth 

an example, as a guide, as an inspirer in 
life, than he can possibly be when 
thought of as a deity. 

'Tenderly let us love Jesus; sincerely 
let us honor him; gladly let us sit at his 
feet, to learn wisdom from his gracious 
lips and his matchless life. But let us 
not follow in the path of the ancient 
pagan peoples and defy the man we 
would honor, even if that man be the 
great and incomparable Galilean. 
Rather let us be his so true and faithful 
disciples, that, in all worship, we shall 
be pointed by him ever to his Father 
and to our Father, to his God and to 
our God!" 

THE MISSION OF JESUS 
Jesus sought to make plain, in all that 
he did or taught, the likeness of God. He 
claimed no other mark of attention; he 



The Man of Nazareth 113 

made no other assertion of leadership ; he 
recognized no other source of truth than 
the God of all the universe. We hear him 
declaring in John, the tenth chapter: 

37 If I do not the works of my 
Father, believe me not. 

38 But if I do, though ye believe 
not me, believe the works; that ye may 
know, and believe, that the Father is in 
me, and I in him. 

When the man came to him seeking to 
know a rule for spiritual perfection, he 
called Jesus ^'Good Master'\ The 
Nazarene corrected him for this, as 
Matthew, the nineteenth chapter records: 
17 And he said unto him. Why 
callest thou me good? there is none 
good but one, that is God; but if thou 
wilt enter into life, keep the command- 
ments. 



114 The Man of Nazareth 

Jesus, as an example, showed unto all 
men that the things he taught of could be 
truth to every one who would apply him- 
self to the testing of them. 

John, the fourteenth chapter, records: 
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, 

He that believeth on me, the works that 

I do shall he do also; and greater works 

than these shall he do. 

His primal object was to teach men the 
value of their souls; the care of their souls; 
and their duty to God and to one another. 
He taught that unrighteousness was sin- 
ning against one's own soul and therefore 
against God, for the soul is "made in the 
image and the likeness of God.'' He made 
plain the fact that a guilty conscience is 
darkness and a state of death; that a pure 
heart is light and abundant life. His 
system of spiritual ethics declares that 



The Man of Nazareth 115 

righteousness comes of practicing the 
laws of righteousness. 

Jesus had no use for a hypocrite; he 
could tell one the instant he set eyes upon 
him; so can we if we use our powers of 
observation. The eyes, the stoop of the 
head, in fact the whole face and carriage of 
the body denote hypocrisy when a man is 
abusing his soul by breaking the laws of 
righteousness. Honesty proclaims itself, 
as does dishonesty; when we are true to 
the laws of truth in our dealings with one 
another, the eye is steady, the voice is 
natural, and the hand has wholesomeness 
in its grasp. 

The master of Nazareth was surrounded 
by hypocrites. They were, for the most 
part, those of the followers of Moses and 
the Prophets; their haunts were the 
synagogues; they professed to know the 



116 The Man of Nazareth 

right and yet they unhesitatingly con- 
demned Jesus when he confronted them 
with the truth. He said he was a son of 
God and they stoned him! He reproved 
them of their inconsistent worship of 
Moses and the Jewish customs, and they 
were ashamed and angry! He showed 
unto them examples of his doctrine and 
they stubbornly remained blind to the 
truth. 

Strange to say, the hardest ones to con- 
vince of the simple laws of God are those 
of the established churches. It seems far 
easier for them to accept of the regal trap- 
pings of superstition and dogma which 
have been handed down from the Roman 
Catholic church, than for them to see 
Jesus as the simple teacher that he was. 
That he was a teacher and an example and 
not a sacrifice, is hard for our Christian 



The Man of Nazareth 117 

brethren to believe. And yet, sacrifice for 
the remission of sin is embedded in Jewish 
custom and Roman Catholic superstition. 

The Jews condemned the Man of 
Galilee because they hated his gospel of 
truth. Jesus taught nothing about his 
death on the cross being a remission of the 
world's sin. This idea was given later by 
the church of the early Christians. The 
old idea of the Jewish church was that of 
sacrifice for iniquity, and many an inno- 
cent lamb and dove were slain in order that 
Jehovah should have his peace offering. 
It is inconsistent that a teacher of love and 
mercy should become the bloody sacrifice 
to a God whose law was kindness and 
long suffering ! 

The excuse is made by some of the New 
Testament writers and by the church to- 
dav, that eternal life can be obtained only 



118 The Man of Nazareth 

through the shedding of Jesus' blood on 
Calvary, in the seventh chapter of John, 
Jesus gives this definition of eternal life: 

2 As thou hast given him (Jesus) 
power over all flesh (his body) that he 
should give eternal life to as many as 
thou hast given him. 

3 And this is life eternal, that they 
might know thee the only true God. 
To know God is to have eternal life — 

not to crucify Jesus. Idolatry is not dead 
when we see it going to such great lengths! 
Jesus did not ask worship of himself but 
that we should know the Father through 
his teaching. 

To know God is to understand his laws; 
to recognize his handiwork; to see his face 
in all creation; to see him in our neighbor; 
to show his likeness in our lives. Not in 
temples and creeds does God exclusively 



The Man of Nazareth 119 

exist, but in every race, in every age, and 
in every heart. 

Robert Burns was spurned by the 
Christian church of his day; he laughed 
at churches and the hypocrites who then 
ran them. Yet Robert Burns knew God! 
He got acquainted with the God of the 
Universe at his own heart's door. In the 
fields among the flowers and the birds did 
Robert Burns find God! In the blush of 
the morning, the tempest of the elements, 
and the sweetness of a smile, Burns met 
God! When his soul was sick with the 
ingratitude of man and those who should 
have extended the friendly hand of love 
and charity, Burns, in the soothing touch 
of real spiritual things and in his own 
heart, found God! 

Jesus taught precisely that God was 
found in the palaces and lovely places of 



120 The Man of Nazareth 

nature. He set no store on earthly things, 
whether temples of clay, or codes of 
ceremony. Plainly telling the people that 
God was spirit and eternal; that love was 
His sway, and that those who came under 
the influence of the law of love could 
know the Father, he went about doing 
good. 

Speaking of his disciples as ''his sheep'', 
he said: (John, tenth chapter:) 

1 The thief cometh not, but for to 

steal, and to kill, and to destroy: 1 am 

come that they might have life, and that 

they might have it more abundantly. 

The wicked man has life, — physical and 

spirit life; yet his life is not the complete 

life of a spiritually intelligent being. If 

the old dogmatic and superstitious hell of 

the early Christian church were a fact, the 

sufferings of its captives could only be felt 



I 



The Man of Nazareth 121 

by them being alive, therefore it would be 
necessary that everlasting life make the 
conditions. I point out this fact to show 
that Jesus did not mean by the above 
passage of John, that death was the 
opposite of being his disciple. He alludes 
here to a spiritual life of greater under- 
standing and greater enjoyment. Why 
should not such a life result from the 
teachings of such a powerful master in 
spiritual law? 

Other teachers of his day were selfishly 
alive to their own temporal advantages, 
but the Nazarene thought only of helping 
men to lift themselves to higher 
planes of spiritual understanding — for the 
Truth's sake and without money and 
without price; they were the thieves who 
came to rob, to kill, and to destroy, while 
he was the good shepard! 



122 The Man of Nazareth 

Whosoever availeth himself of the 
appHcation of the spiritual laws of Jesus 
of Nazareth, may find abundant life; to 
live life in its fullness is to obey the laws of 
God; getting into harmony with one's self 
is to get into fellowshiD with the God laws 
of the universe. Paul says ''Sin is the 
breaking of the Law." When we break 
physical laws, we pay the penalty in pain 
and suffering; when we break spiritual 
laws, we pay the penalty in damning our 
souls from the full joy of spiritual ease and 
soul harmony. 

THE CRUCIFICTION AND RESUR- 
RECTION OF JESUS 

The ministry of Jesus placed him be- 
tween two enemy bodies of rulership: The 
patriarchal Jews on the one side, and the 
government of Rome on the other. The 



The Man of Nazareth 123 

Jews hated him because he taught an 
independent spiritual philosophy which 
was free from national taint and selfish- 
ness; they worshipped Moses and their 
prophets and denied other nations the 
privilege of their avenues of worship, 
claiming direct favor with Jehovah 
(ignorantly believing him to be the whole 
of God) and they considered all other 
nations as dirt under their feet. Jesus 
opposed this selfish and traditional practice 
by eating with Publicans and ''sinners;" 
breaking Jewish customs and laws which 
were foolish and not God-binding; reveal- 
ing his kinship with God the Father, as 
an example of what relation all humanity 
existed in with God. 

The Roman government recognized the 
danger of the, socialism which Jesus 
taup"ht- When the master said "Render 



124 The Man of Nazareth 

unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's 
and unto God the things that are God's/' 
he cut deeply into the spirit of the times. 
His gospel of equality breathed so much of 
freedom from unjust governorship that 
the Roman seat of authority trembled for 
its safety. 

The counsel which Jesus gave to his 
disciples in the fifth chapter of Matthew 
shows plainly in what state of oppression 
the people were in: 

25 Agree with thine adversary 
quickly, whiles thou art in the way with 
him; lest at any time the adversary de- 
liver thee to the judge, and the judge 
deliver thee to the officer, and thou be 
cast into prison. 

26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou 
shalt by no means come out thence, till 
thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. 



The Man of Nazareth 125 

When Jesus had finished the greater 
part of his ministery he received a 
message from the spirit ^\rorld that he 
would soon come to them. The ninth 
chapter of Luke records the spirit appear- 
ance of two men who had left their 
physical bodies many centuries before: 

28 And it came to pass, he 

took Peter and John and James, and went 
up into a mountain to pray. 

29 And as he prayed, the fashion of 
his countenance was altered, and his 
raiment was white and glistening. 

30 And, behold, there talked with 
him two men, which were Moses and 
Ellas. 

31 Who appeared in glory, and 
spake of his decease which he should 
accomplish at Jerusalem. 

32 Peter and they that were with 



126 The Man of Nazareth 

him saw his glory and the two men that 

stood with him. 

Many minds, that cannot grasp the 
naturalness of spirit return, believe this 
message from the beyond; they accept as 
truth, the manifestation of God's power 
when they read of it in a book, but they 
doubt exceedingly when science pro- 
pounds the whys and wherefores of such 
a manifestation. 

From the time of his spirit warning, 
Jesus begins to tell his disciples that he will 
leave them and go to his Father' kingdom. 
He is even willing to return to Jerusalem 
that his enemies may put him to death. 

As a comfort for their grief and de- 
spair at the loss of him, he tells them in 
the fourteenth of John: 

1 Let not your heart be troubled: 

ye believe in God, believe also in me. 



The Man of Nazareth 127 

2 In my Father's house are many 
mansions; if it were not so 1 would have 
told you. I go to prepare a place for 
you. 

3 And if 1 go and prepare a place 
for you, I will come again, and receive 
you unto myself; that where 1 am, there 
ye may be also. 

19 Yet a little while, and the world 
seeth me no more; but ye see me: be- 
cause I live, ye shall live also. 
When the time came, he was taken to 
the cruciiiction hill and forced to pay the 
penalty for what the Jews pronounced 
blasphemy. It is recorded in Matthew that 
''When Jesus had cried with a loud voice, 
he yielded up the ghost." 

That could only mean that he gave up 
the spirit; or that the spirit was no longer 
in the body. 



128 The Man of Nazareth 

Many souls to-day, in the Christian 
churches, are waiting for the second 
coming of Jesus. If the ninth verse of 
this chapter tells the truth, he will not 
come again in the future and they are 
exceedingly late in point of time, for he 
appeared unto those to whom he promised 
his return. 

'Tet a little while, and the world seeth 
me no more." Pilate and those who 
crucified him, never saw his return. The 
world refused to believe that Jesus rose 
from the dead because they never 
witnessed his return. Only the disciples 
and a few others gave testimony that they 
had seen him. 

In the upper room, when the eleven 
disciples and some of the women who 
were converts to the new gospel, gathered 
to hold a watch-meeting, they bolted the 



The Man of Nazareth 129 

doors to keep out intruders and persecu- 
tors; their expectation was that Jesus 
would appear unto them. If they had ex- 
pected a manifestation of the physical 
crucified body of Jesus, do you think they 
would have bolted the doors? 
John, twentieth chapter: 

19 Then the same day at evening, 

being the first day of the week, when 

the doors were shut where the disciples 

were assembled for fear of the Jews, 

came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and 

saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 

It is true, Thomas exacted the proof of 

the nail-prints and the open side before he 

would believe the evidence of his senses 

or the testimony of the other disciples. 

But Paul declares in 1st Corinthians, 

fifteenth chapter: 

50 Now this I say, brethren, that 



130 The Man of Nazareth 

flesh and blood cannot inherit the king- 
dom of God. 

Jesus therefore went to his Father^s 
kingdom a spirit, having left his crucified 
body in earth, to mingle with the earth, as 
is the law of physical nature. 

Thomas had declared that he would 
believe only on condition that he be shown 
the crucifiction marks to prove that Jesus 
v/as the spirit manifesting. Jesus knew 
this and had the power to present to 
Thomas a body of his earth likeness. I do 
not offer this as an excuse to evade the 
seeming difficulty in the narrative; I offer 
it as the only rational and natural explan- 
ation of the manifestation and laws of 
spirit. 

It were o-ross imperfection if Jesus re- 
tained his worn and torn physical body in 
his Father's kingdom; the laws of nature 



The Man of Nazareth 131 

refuse such a sequence to physical death! 

Matthew states that an angel was at the 
tomb when Mary visited it; John states 
that two angels were there. (See Matthew 
28:2 also John 20:12) 

Mark states that there was a young 
man: Mark, sixteenth chapter: 

5 And entering into the sepulchre, 

they saw a young man sitting on the 

right hand side, clothed in a long white 

garment; and they were af righted. 

Luke declares that there were two men: 
Luke, twenty-fourth chapter: 

4 Two men stood by them in 

shining garments. 

This shows plainly that ''man" and 
''d.ngcV^ are synonymous. 

If God has seen fit to clothe spirits in 
flesh bodies here which bear the likeness 
that we are familiar with, — four limbs, a 



132 The Man of Nazareth 

head, trunk, and features of face that we 
know so well, it will surely suit His pur- 
pose to give them bodies resembling in 
shape those of humanity, when earth and 
its uses are passed away. 

So, I am not at all surprised to learn that 
Mary and the disciples saw *^two men'' 
who were spirits departed from flesh. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Qhosts of Ads 

Acts places us in almost direct touch 
with ghost visitation; Peter and Paul, 
through the pen of some vivid writer, 
possibly Luke, are the center of striking 
psychic phenomena. Would my readers 
be shocked if I should declare these two 
evangelical leaders to have been physic 
mediums? How else can we explain the 
wonders which they did? Healing, 
prophecy, clairvoyance, and the speaking 
with strange tongues, — is there any other 
name for these things than the one we 



134 Ghosts of Ad:s 

know them by to-day, — ''psychic mani- 
festation?" 

The disciple John is the type of the 
mental and spiritual psychic; in Peter and 
Paul we have mediumship which is physi-' 
cal as well as spiritual. They both preach 
by inspiration; they both heal by the lay- 
ing on of hands. Paul, like Peter is posi- 
tive and earnest, though, unlike Peter, he 
uses more self control, which therby the 
better wins him objects of conversion. 

One thing only made martyrs of the 
apostles; that was their firm conviction 
that the spirit of man survived the change 
of death. It was this conviction which 
converted them to preach that Jesus had 
risen from the dead. Did not Paul speak 
with him after the crucifiction? Had not 
Peter been present several times when 
Jesus manifested to the disciples. When 



Ghosts of Ad:s 135 

one has had such experiences of spirit 
communion he cannot find enough earn- 
estness with which to tell the glad tidings. 

When the priests of the Jewish church 
saw the miracles of spirit power they made 
a move to suppress the apostles and their 
work. 

In the fourth chapter of Acts we read: 

1 8 And they called them, and com- 
manded them not to speak at all nor 
teach in the name of Jesus. 

19 But Peter and John answered 
and said unto them, Whether it be right 
in the sight of God to hearken unto you 
more than unto God, judge ye. 

20 For we cannot but speak the 
things which we have seen and heard. 
Of what things did they speak, if not 

of the things of the spirit world ? Their 
teaching (as was also Jesus') told of the 



136 Ghosts of Arts 

necessity of spiritual preparation for a life 
to come; that death meant the transport- 
ing of the spirit into a fleshless world. They 
explained, as did Jesus, the important 
things necessary for changing a sinful 
course of life to a better one. Their 
gospel gave a full course of practice for 
spiritual and soul growth. The ignorance 
of the priests made them fear and become 
jealous of these staunch upholders of 
God's spiritual laws. 

Gamaliel, the learned lawyer, remon- 
strates with the priests and the people, as 
the fifth chapter sets forth: 

38 And now I say unto you, Re- 
frain from these men, and let them 
alone; for if this counsel or this work 
be of men, it will come to naught: 

39 But if it be of God, ye cannot 



Ghosts of Ad:s 137 

overthrow it; lest haply ye be found 

even to fight against God. 

The first ghost we meet with in this part 
of our journey, is recorded in this chap- 
ter: 

19 The angel of the Lord (a mess- 
enger from Jesus) by night opened the 
prison doors, and brought them forth, 
and said: 

20 Go, stand and speak in the 
temple to the people all the words of 
this life. 

This is precisely the same thing Sir 
Arthur Conan Doyle and hundreds of 
others are doing to-day. They have been 
commissioned by those in the spirit world 
to tell the people here all the "things of 
this life." Such bearers of spiritual testi- 
mony have even been cast out of the 
church pulpits, to the shame and disgrace 



138 Ghosts of Adts 

of Christian communities. (1 should have 
said ''so-called Christian" for real Chris- 
tians do not belittle the sincere findings of 
truth seeking souls.) 

Jesus manifested when he could, and 
when he could not be sent a messenger. 
In either case it was spirit manifestation, 
or, to be plain, spirit-return ! 

I pointed out in 1st Samuel the text 
which proved the woman of Endor to have 
been under the guidance of a spirit; now, 
concerning the apostle Stephen I find the 
same circumstance: 

Chapter six says: 

8 And Stephen, full of faith and 

power, did great wonders and miracles 

among the people. 

10 And they were not able to resist 

the wisdom and the spirit by which he 

spake. 



Ghosts of Ad:s 139 

The Old Testament is translated from 
the Hebrew language; the New Testament 
comes to us from the Greek. When God, 
or Jesus, is alluded to in the New Testa- 
ment we find the word ''spirit" spelled 
with a capital S; in this case we have the 
word simply "spirit.'' I consider this to 
mean a separate entity beside the spirit of 
Stephen himself. 

15 And all that sat in the council, 

looking steadfastly on him, saw his 

face as it had been the face of an angel 

(spirit). 

This testifies to a condition of semi- 
trance which is decidedly influenced by 
spirit contact. While I am on this section 
of the subject let me not forget to remind 
my reader of a passage in the seventh 
chapter, concerning the apostles' healing 
and other miracles: 



140 



Ghosts of Ad:s 



7 For unclean spirits, crying with 

loud voice, came out of many that were 

possessed with them. 

Mary Magdalene is reported to have 

been freed from seven evil spirits. If 

ghosts are, (as 1 have set forth) spirits who 

once lived in flesh bodies, then there are 

good, bad, and indiflferent kinds of them. 

In the eighth chapter of this book of 
Acts, we find that Philip is visited by either 
Jesus, or the messenger of Jesus: 

26 And the angel of the Lord spake 
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go to- 
ward the south. 

Philip obeyed the command and, when 
he arrived at a certain place, met a man 
in a carriage who wished to know about 
the gospel the apostles were preaching. 
Philip baptized the man and then was 



Ghosts of Adts 141 



caught away, or made invisible to the 
physical senses. 

This is a powerful example of spirit 
power. When instances of like happening 
take place to-day, people make fun of 
them; but when they are reported in 
Scripture, faith is at its height and they 
are believed ! 1 do not wish to be under- 
stood as not believing the phenomena of 
this incident; the laws of spirit power are 
natural laws of God; if they happened 
then they are possible to-day! If you 
doubt it, you must also doubt these in- 
stances of spirit manifestation recorded in 
your Bible. 

I will pass over the manifestation of the 
spirit of Jesus unto Paul, as recorded in 
the ninth chapter of Acts. It is so well 
known that it needs no direct attention 
from my pen; suffice to say that it is a 



142 



Ghosts of Adts 



positive instance of spirit-return. 

The tenth chapter contains an account 
of one of the most striking ghost mani- 
festations in the book of Acts. Peter is 
here shown a vision to teach him that God 
loves a Gentile as well as a Jew; after this 
clairvoyant vision, the spirit informs him 
that there are men at his door with a mess- 
age: 

19 While Peter thought upon the 
vision, the Spirit said unto him. Behold 
three men seek thee. 

20 Arise therefore, and get thee 
down, and go with them, doubting noth- 
ing: for I have sent them. 

When Peter arrived with the three men 
to where their master, Cornelius, lived, he 
asked Cornelius to explain how this spirit 
message came about and why he had been 
sent for. Cornelius gives the following 



Ghosts of Adts 143 



account of his psychic experience with a 
ghost: 

30 And Cornelius said, Four days 
ago I was fasting until this hour; and at 
the ninth hour I prayed in my house; 
and, behold a man stood by me in 
bright clothing, 

31 And said, Cornelius thy prayer 
is heard and thine alms are had in re- 
membrance in the sight of God. 

32 Send therefore to Joppa, and call 

thither Simon, whose surname is Peter; 

he is lodge in the house of one Simon 

a tanner, by the sea-side; who, when he 

Cometh, shall speak unto thee. 

Notice, that while the text reads "Spirit" 

yet in no other place does it read that this 

visitor from spirit realms is Jesus. The 

translators, naturally, made it to read with 

a capital in this instance. That it was a 



144 Ghosts of Acts 



spirit who did not give his name is evident 
from the verses containing the descriptions 
of his appearance. I mention this to bring 
clearly before the mind of the reader that 
this was an ordinary spirit messenger and 
not one, such as the Christ spirit or the 
spirit of Jesus, who might be supposed to 
have special power to communicate with 
mortals. 

The objection may be raised that it was 
Jesus, from the text in the eleventh chap- 
ter, where Peter answers "Not so Lord.'' 
Peter gives no sign in these verses, or in 
any others that he recognizes the voice or 
the angel to be that of Jesus. The term 
''Lord" is also used by Paul in his seance 
with the spirit of Jesus; Paul says ''Who 
art thou. Lord?" In both these instances 
the term "Lord" is the regular Jewish one 
of "Master" and does not signify any 



Ghosts of Ad:s 145 



particular person. Paul did not know the 
spirit to be that of Jesus, else he would 
not have asked ''Who art thou?'' when he 
used the term ''Lord." Peter uses the 
same phrase because he perceived the 
spirit to be one in authority; not that he 
thought it was Jesus. Cornelius, the 
Italian, uses the same term for the same 
reason Paul and Peter use it. 

A strange psychic entrancement is given 
an account of in the twelfth chapter: 

(Peter is in prison, in the hands of king 
Herod) 

7 And behold, the angel of the 
Lord, (Jesus' messenger) came upon 
him, and a light shined in the prison; 
and he smote Peter on the side, and 
raised him up, saying arise up quickly. 
And his chains fell off from his hands. 

8 And the angel said unto him. Gird 



146 Ghosts of Ad:s 

thyself, and bind on thy sandals; and 
so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast 
thy garment about thee and follow me. 
9 And he went out, and followed 
him; and wist not that it was true which 
was done by the angel but thought he 
saw a vision. 

If this is not a case of spirit control and 
entrancement, where is there any other 
rational explanation ? Surely some psychic 
power had Peter in its grasp; when the 
psychic events were finished and he found 
himself alone it all seemed to him like a 
dream and he had difficulty in reconciling 
the experience to his physical faculties. 
Many times we are visited in sleep with 
the presence of some loved one from the 
spirit world ; during that moment it is very 
^eal, but when we awake and once mo-- 
tread the vales of flesh, it becomes like 



Ghosts of Ac5ts 147 



Peter's experience seemed to him, — like a 
dream and we ''wist not that it is true but 
think we see a vision.'' Bible students 
usually skip this unique psychic experi- 
ence of Peter's for the very natural reason 
that they cannot explain it. 

In the fourteenth chapter, Paul again 
exhorts the people to believe in the living 
God and His power: 

1 5 We also are men of like passions 
with you, and preach unto you that ye 
should turn from these vanities unto the 
living God, which made heaven, and 
earth, and the sea, and all things that 
are therein. 

Once more, let me remind my reader 
that all psychic powers come from this 
God,— (the God of the Universe). All 
laws of science are His; all mani- 
festation of spirit, either in flesh or out- 



148 Ghosts of Adls 



side of it, belongs to Him and is under His 
wisdom and power. No other source of 
power is in the world and no personal 
devil can control any corner of His mighty 
worlds ! However much the gospels may 
be mixed with Jewish customs and be- 
liefs, — even in Paul's preaching, — there is 
still the remaining truth that God is 
greater than all customs or beliefs; His 
science scatters all superstition and His 
unceasing finger writes through every age 
and people the unchangeable letter of His 
law. 

We find in the sixteenth chapter of Acts 
an account of the visitation of a ghost unto 
Paul: 

9 And a vision appeared to Paul in 
the night; There stood a man of 
Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, 
Come over into Macedonia, and help us. 



Ghosts of Adts 149 

Who this spirt was, is not given; I can- 
not but believe that it was a spirit and 
that he appeared through Paul's power of 
spirit sight. Since the manifestation took 
place in the night we may safely presume 
that Paul was physically asleep. If that be 
true, then this is an instance like unto 
those psychic experiences of to-day in 
which we walk and talk with loved ones 
during the hours of the night when the 
physical body is asleep. 

We find in this chapter that a certain 
damsel followed Paul and that she was 
possessed of a spirit guide who prophesied 
through her, much to the financial gain of 
those who held her as their slave : 

1 7 The same followed Paul and us, 
and cried, saying. These men are the 
servants of the most high God, which 
show us the way of salvation. 



150 Ghosts of A(fts 

18 And this did she many days. 

But Paul, being grieved, turned and said 

to the spirit, 1 command thee in the 

name of Jesus Christ, to come out of 

her. And he came out the same hour. 

Paul knew that the spirit troubled the 

maiden and that she was therefore 

obsessed. Knowing also that she could be 

her natural self, and that she should be, he 

forced the spirit to leave control of her. 

Spirit control is not necessarily a bad 

thing; but to become a slave to one entity 

is to deny oneself the privilege of soul 

freedom which is essential to spiritual 

progression. I believe in spirit guides, — 

teachers, helpers, and companions, — but 

I do not believe in spirit dictators! 

The fact that many people do not under- 
stand spirit communication is no warrant 
for its impossibility. I find that after Paul 



Ghosts of Adts 151 



had forcefully shown to the people the 
power of his mediumship as a psychic in 
the hands of spirits, many doubted and 
were hardened in their faithlessness: 
(Nineteenth chapter) 

6 And when Paul had laid his hands 
upon them, the Holy Ghost (power of 
psychic mediumship) came upon them 
and they spake with tongues and 
prophesied. 

9 But when divers were hardened, 
and believed not, but spake evil of that 
way before the multitude, he departed 
from them. 

Some of them tried to imitate Paul in 
casting out evil spirits; they recited the 
formula used by the apostles and called 
upon the spirits to leave those bodies they 
were unjustly controlling. The spirits 
knew that these persons were not 



152 



Ghosts of Adts 



possessed of psychic power and that they 
could not drive them out: 

15 And the evil spirit answered and 
said, Jesus 1 know, and Paul I know; 
but who are ye? 

16 And the man in whom the evil 
spirit was, leaped on them, and over- 
came them, and prevailed against them, 
so that they fled out of that house naked 
and wounded. 

Many minds wonder if indeed the dead 
are brought back to life. I doubt it. Jesus 
said once of Lazarus ''He sleepeth." Paul 
(in this chapter) revives the man who fell 
down from the window while Paul was 
preaching: 

10 And Paul went down, and fell 

on him, and embracing him, said. 

Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in 

him. 



Ghosts of Ad:s 153 



When once the spirit has completely left 
the physical there is no return of it to that 
body. The case is usually one of suspend- 
ed consciousness, trance condition, but 
never that of physical death. 

In the twentieth chapter Paul foretells 
his trial and the fact that he shall no more 
walk in the flesh with those of a certain 
city for the time for him to lay aside his 
physical ministry is near at hand: 

25 And now, behold, I know that 
ye all, among whom I have gone preach- 
ing the kingdom of God, shall see my 
face (physical form) no more. 
In the twenty-first chapter there are two 
who foretell of Paul's arrest and persecu- 
tion at Jerusalem: 

4 And finding disciples, we tarried 
there seven days: who said to Paul 



154 Ghosts of Ad:s 

through the Spirit, that he should not 

go up to Jerusalem. 

In Caesarea a man held Paul's girdle and 
from its magnetism which aided his 
psychic faculties, he foretold Paul's trouble 
with the Jews at Jerusalem: 

1 1 And when he was come unto us, 

he took Paul's girdle, and bound his 

own hands and feet, and said. Thus 

saith the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews 
. at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth 

this girdle, and shall deliver him unto 

the hands of the Gentiles. 

Shortly afterwards Paul is taken prison- 
er at Jerusalem and tried for preaching the 
truths of a spiritual world and immortality 
of the soul The same charge was made 
against Jesus of Nazareth. It is still made 
against honest minded men and women 
who, to-dav. deliver faithfully the things 



Ghosts of Ad:s 155 



of spirit from those spirit messengers who 
command us to ''tell the people all the 
things of this life.'' 

Paul defended himself as best he could 
by telling his judges how the spirit of 
Jesus had manifested to him; this only 
enraged them, for they understood nothing 
at all about spirit manifestation and so 
believed nothing. Paul appealed unto 
Caesar and after the fashion of the law, 
was granted to appear before that august- 
personage. It was necessary to travel to 
him by sea and therefore the ship journey 
are entered upon. 

On the way the ship becomes strayed 
from her course and storms and tempests 
beset her so that the crew grow fearful lest 
they all be lost. The twenty-seventh 
chapter records the voyage and tells of a 
ghost message given to Paul to assure the 



156 Ghosts of Adts 

crew, that they should all safely land from 
the ship: 

22 And now I exhort you to be of 
good cheer; for there shall be no loss 
of any man's life among you, but of the 
ship. 

23 For there stood by me this night 
the angel of God, whose I am and whom 
I serve, 

24 Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou 
must be brought before Caesar; and lo, 
God hath given thee all them that sail 
with thee. 

25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good 
cheer; for I believe God, that it shall 
be even as it was told me. 

This is precisely what takes place. When 
Paul arrives at Rome he is allowed to go 
free and is given permission to speak to 



Ghosts of Adts 157 



the people the things of spiritual truth, 
even as the angel promised him. 

Now I have reached the end of my book 
on the ghosts of the Bible. May the reader 
be earnest in his consideration of these 
things; may he seek to reason more deeply 
into these manifestations of God's power 
in the lives of mankind. The things re- 
counted in the Bible are, in so far as they 
are consistently true, examples of what is 
possible to-day. I have not claimed any- 
thing for the power of spirit that is not 
endorsed and illustrated in the Scriptures. 

Angels, — spirits,— are but the visitors 
to this world who once themselves lived 
in it and walked side by side with one an- 
other and us, as we do to-day. Some day 
we shall be the ghosts of the future and 
in our turn re-visit ''the glimpses of the 
moon," — the earth, walking and com- 



158 Ghosts of Adts 

municating with those who are here; try- 
ing to impress upon their dense physical 
organism that we exist and that we come 
to help and assist in the great problems of 
their day and age. This is God's decree and 
His law surrounds, upholds, and governs 
it. The laws of Nature (God's law of 
earth) are but the stage settings whereby 
spirit acts in the eternal drama of the soul. 



Nature^s Sermon 

By Converse E. Nickerson 

From the heights there comes the message 
Singing boldly, ringing truly, 

Telling earth the welcome tidings 

That the dead are no more dead! 

Hills and vales give cheerful echoes, 
Brooklets sweetly flowing neatly 

Show the truth of life unending: 

That the dead are no more dead. 

Flowers take the joy of telling: 

*Tis their duty that their beauty 

Show God's kindness and His loving,'- 
Lo the dead are no more dead. 

The great heart of man proclaims it; 

Ever trying, never sighing. 
As he climbs the earthen pathway 

Up to where there are no dead. 



THE WAY HOME 

By Converse E. Nickerson m 

Smiles and flowers strew my way, 

Joy and sunshine they will bring 
If I cherish well each day 

Calm of spirit, thoughts that sing. 
Love emotions bring in tune 

All that in confusion lies; 
We can have the warmth ot June 

Just by loving friendship ties. 
Birds, when joyful, always sing. 

Care-free as the winds they ride,— 
Music blesses everything 

When in peace our souls abide. 
Bring no flowers to the grave 

If that soul loved not the thrill 
Of the sunshine and the wave, 

Or the joy of bird and rill. 
God's one message to the soul 

Rings sincerely in the heart. 
Wake then, as around thee roll 

Strains of Nature's sublime art. 
Seek to know the beauty there. 

Learn the sweetness of that tune 
Deep in Nature, ever fair. 

Claim it ere it pass too soon. 
Harmony and peace are thine, 

If thow knowest whilst thou roam 
That the flame of love will shine 

Up to God to light thee home! 



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